


The Ties That Bind

by InsidiousIntent



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Everyone Being Awesome, Gen, Love Through Food, M/M, Marjan's mom, Mateo's mom, Paul's brother - Freeform, Team Bonding, Team as Family, a bunch of OCs created for this fic, established tarlos relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23987398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsidiousIntent/pseuds/InsidiousIntent
Summary: Ammi calls her every Friday before jummah prayers, without fail. She could keep a watch by it, but it never makes her feel anything other than loved. She knows how much her parents miss her.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 11
Kudos: 70
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	The Ties That Bind

**Author's Note:**

> For Lone Star Week 2020, here is my offering for Day 1: Family. 
> 
> This is highly unbeta'ed.

* * *

Ammi calls her every Friday before jummah prayers, without fail. She could keep a watch by it, but it never makes her feel anything other than loved. She knows how much her parents miss her. 

“Have you had your lunch?” her mom asks instead of any kind of greeting. 

“Ammi jaan, of course I haven’t had food. Have we even met?” she responds, giggling around the sigh she hears on the other line. 

“Abbu says hi,” is always the next line. It’s been two months, but Marjan hasn’t found a good way to respond to it. “Say hi back.”

“You know he’s trying, baba,” her mom sounds tired, and she feels the deep gut clench of sadness that accompanies every phone call with her mom. She knows she’s always going to be a disappointment to her father.  
“Ammi, all you have to do is move to Austin. He isn’t even practicing anymore.”

“Baba, we are going as fast as we can. You know these things take time,” her mom’s voice has not lost its kind and patient cadence. But she misses her family, and being all alone in a new city, a whole new state doesn’t feel as great as a fresh start should. She just wants her family close, so that’s what she says to ammi. 

“Once you’re married, at least you won’t drag us around with you,” her mom responds. The jummah call is about to go off any time now, so she tamps down on her annoyance at the age old argument. 

“But since that hasn’t happened yet, why do you and baba join me in Austin so you can scope out the community here,” she cajoles instead. “See if you can find a _‘good boy’_ for me.”

Her mom’s responding laughter is single-handedly enough to brighten the rest of her day. 

“I know what you’re doing, but I’m absolutely going to take you up on it when we move. You just wait.”

“Khuda hafiz ammi jaan,” she says, heart full of love for her family. 

“Ma’a al salama, baba,” her mom says hanging up. Yet another jummah in tears. 

***

“You alright there, Marwani?” Mateo says, catching her right after prayers. She was really not in the mood to deal with his sunshine personality. She just wants to wallow for one day without having to be someone’s bridge to understanding and _cultural enrichment_. 

“I’m fine, kid. Why don’t you go bother someone else?”

Mateo just grinned at her. “Fine fine, don’t be social. I guess you’ll just have to miss out on my mom’s world famous pozole verde!” his voice carries out behind her and she can’t help it. 

She turns around and marches back to him, getting right in his face. 

“Yeah ok, you can keep your mom’s amazing food. Because guess what _probie_ , my mom’s sitting a thousand miles away in Miami where she can’t feed me any of _her_ world famous foods.” 

A breath. “I don’t get to have my mom’s cooking, so I’m fine with not having any of your mom’s cooking.” 

She walks away before Judd and Paul can walk over and try to mediate. She doesn’t want to talk any more about this than she already has. 

There are still some leftovers from her mom’s last care package. That’ll have to do for tonight, tomorrow Marjan Marwani will face the world as she always does. 

_____

“You home, chico?” his mom calls out to Mateo as soon as he enters the house. The place is small and a little cramped, and her voice carries over easily from the kitchen. He toes off his shoes and jacket before making his way over to the kitchen and giving his mom a quick hug. The entire house smelled heavenly, a mix of spices and rice, all the comforts of home. 

“Hey mama, you makin my favorite again?” he yells more than asks, running up to change his clothes. Now that he’s the only one left in the house, he at least has more space for himself. The past few months have opened up a lot of those doors that were closed to his family - both his older brothers have been able to move out, finally able to pay attention to their construction business. His papi has been able to finally retire from the business, staying home and working around the house more. 

But he is the happiest about his mama being at home now, not forced to babysit for cash, or clean houses all day long. Angelica Chavez is a force to be reckoned with, and no one can tell how much determination, kindness, love, and perseverance she holds in her tiny five feet two inches frame.

Mateo these days sees her walking around the house, humming her favorite songs, cooking all the best dishes, instead of toiling for hours taking care of children and the homes, and he feels joy and pride at being able to give her back this time. 

“How is your Captain these days?” mama asks. Mateo hasn’t kept any secrets from her, sharing the truth about the man who has been the biggest help in getting him and his family citizenship. Mama took an instant liking to Captain Strand, and now regularly sends heaps of her cooking for him. 

“He’s pretty good, I think he’s finally understanding the Austin heat,” he responds with a chuckle. 

Mama laughs too. “Well he will need a lot of horchata to keep him cool then. All your new friends will,” she says, as if food and drink will solve every problem. 

She isn’t wrong. 

“I don’t know mama, it isn’t the Captain I’m worried about. It’s Marjan.”

“What happened, mijo?” 

Mateo flops over the dining room chair, watching the way his mom easily carries over the giant bowl of _menudo_ over to him. He patiently waits while she brings her own bowl and then the priority is all about the food. After about ten minutes of silent eating, mama sits back and looks at him. 

“So what’s going on with the girl?” she asks, her tone gentle but curious like she always gets about the team. Even Judd is a mystery to her, but Mateo loves how his mom immediately loved his team. She didn’t understand all their differences, hell there are days when even Mateo doesn’t get everything, but his mom never let that stop her from trying to feed every member of his brand new team. He’s pretty sure Paul was still eating leftovers from Mateo’s exam passing celebration that mama sent over a week ago. 

“Marjan was really grumpy and then she yelled at me today, and all I wanted to do was share your pozole!” he exclaims. 

“Oh Mijo,” his mom says with a sigh and smile, lightly hitting his shoulder. “Can’t you see what’s going on?”

“No how could I possibly know!” Mateo doesn’t understand how his mom got more out of the story than he did, and he was right there. 

“Didn’t you tell me her family is far away? Think please. She’s obviously missing them,” his mom clarifies and it’s like a light bulb going off in his head. 

“Oh I’m an idiot,” he says.

His mom laughs. “Now let me fix this for you.” 

***

“Marjan! Hey Marjan,” Mateo rushed to catch up to her as Marjan was leaving the quiet room for her prayers. She hasn’t quite lost her frosty attitude, but at least she isn’t picking outright fights, which Mateo is thankful for. Otherwise what he’s trying to give her would be awkward.

“Look I wanted to say sorry about the other day. I had no idea you were in a bad mood,” he says, and Marjan at least looks apologetic at that. 

“Look probie, I’m sorry about that. I was just not having a great day and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you,” she says. 

“No no you’re fine, I talked to my mom about it,” Mateo says, rushed.

Marjan looks taken aback at that. “You tattled to your mom about me?” 

“It’s not like that!” he says, finally frustrated. “Look just take this, my mom made it for you.” He shoves the giant pirex container at her, and thankfully she catches it. 

Marjan looks down at it, a little confused. Opening the container doesn’t clear any of her confusion. “What?”

“Look, I know you miss your family,” he says, a little halting. “And I know if I was so far away from my family how much it would suck to hear about other people’s families while I was alone.” 

Marjan’s face does a funny little twitch at that. “So my mom sent you her version of _fideo_ , noodle soup. She says this is the closest thing to _knafeh_ and the closest thing to home she can give you.”

Marjan’s eyes water a little at that, but she bursts out laughing instead. “Probie, it’s not _koo-naa-faa,_ the name of the dish is _kuh-nay-fey_.” 

Mateo grins, happy he could make her smile, even if it was a little at his expense. “You know what I meant though!” 

Marjan grins in return and thumps him on his shoulder. “Thank you, and thank your mom for this wonderful gift.”

_____

Paul walks into the house tired and drenched in sweat. Today’s workout was a killer, and he was looking forward to just taking a shower and crashing. He leaves all his stuff by the door, there will be time for cleanup later. 

The heat of the shower wakes him up a little, and after putting on fresh clothes he wonders if he has the time to cook or if today will be yet another day for takeout. He likes that he gets to cook at the firehouse, and the various dietary restrictions of his teammates gives him a great challenge to live up to. But cooking for one is never appealing, and he has spent more money on takeout when he is off than anything else he owns. Texas may be different, but damn does it know how to cook right. 

He’s just picked up the phone to call his favorite place, when the phone rings in his hand. The name on the caller ID makes him smile big. 

“New phone who dis?” He greets the caller. 

“As if you’d forget me, loser!” screams the other party. “Open the dang door, it’s so gross and hot here!”

Paul whoops with excitement and rushes to open the door wide open. On the other side of the door stands his favorite person in the world, his older brother Ron. 

Ron grins and holds his arms out to Paul, who snatches the big containers full of food. “Got you some of that _good_ Chicago food, son!” 

Paul runs to the kitchen to dump the food before turning around to give his brother a full body hug. “Man watchu doin here?! I thought you were in New York this week!”

Ron grins, “I lied. The launch was last week, and I took this week off so I could come see how my only fam was settling in!” He strolls into the apartment and bounces on the couch, hands spread. 

Paul grins right back and walks over to the couch to sit next to his big brother. “I can’t believe that you lied to me! What’s all this for?”

Ron looks at him with the fondest smile. “This is so I can come see my lil bro, make sure he’s doin okay, hang out with my only family.”

Paul knows he’s been feeling a little lonely, but it’s a great feeling to know that he was also missed. Not that Ron has ever been anything less than a great brother. At age fifteen, after losing his parents to a driveby, Paul had no one but his brother left in the world. At the young age of twenty one, a newly college graduate Ron became his brother and parent, and he never stopped protecting him. Paul remembers the night he finally told Ron about himself. Remembers the full body shakes, the tears, the fear that his only family would walk away from him once the truth comes out. But Ron had been patient, only a little confused, but very loving and accepting. Ron pushed them both to be better, and Paul is proud of everything his little family has achieved. 

But that has made the move to Austin even harder. For more than a decade, he has been able to count on Ron being close, but now they’re so far apart. The distance was only tempered a little by the daily calls and video chats, but Paul knows how demanding Ron’s job is, and having his brother in person, in his house is enough to lift his spirits. 

“Well now that I’m here, I gotta make sure these Texans didn’t ruin your eating habits,” Ron says, getting up and slapping Paul’s shoulder. 

“You haven’t met my team yet,” Paul laughs and goes after him. “They are the most diverse crowd with the most dietary restrictions. You can’t win.”

Ron opens up the box with the heavenly smells of catfish and loaded potatoes. “Listen, your team can represent every state of the _country_ and I’ll still win them over with my cooking. I’m that good.” 

Paul laughs and shakes his head. His brother has no idea what he’s talking about. 

***

Judd is packing up when Paul walks out into the locker room, ready to end the shift and the day. He nods at Judd and starts packing up, when Judd strolls over. “Listen brother, you and I are both done for the day. You wanna head over to my place for dinner?” He grins and slaps Paul’s shoulder. “Grace is secretly dying to compare cooking techniques.” 

Paul grabs his duffel and laughs, shaking his head as both men walk out of the locker room. 

“Man thank you for the invitation, but I’m busy right now. I’ve got a visitor right -” he stops, seeing Ron standing in the main station, looking a little confused. 

“Ron?!” Paul yells, running over and leaving Judd standing bemused. “Hey man, what are you _doing here?_ ”

“Figured I’d see what made you leave home and move to the middle of Texas,” Ron says, grinning. “ _Damn_ brother, these are some fancy digs.”

Judd laughs, walking over to meet the two men. “They sure are. Our Captain is from _New York City_ ,” he says, as an entire explanation. 

Ron and Paul both nod, fully understanding. Paul puts his hands on Ron’s shoulder, “Ron, this is Judd. He’s a real Texan cowboy.” 

“Nice to meetchya,” Ron says, extending a hand which Judd takes. “Thank you for taking care of my little brother here.”

Judd’s smile grows. “This is your big brother?” he says, pointing. “Well listen, man. We have made sure young Paul here got the full Texan hospitality. Best food and all.” 

Both Paul and Ron turn their heads at Judd. “Please don’t tell me you think Texan food is superior to the Chicago delicacies?” Ron asks, a little incredulously. 

Judd’s smile is a little smug. “Texan food is well known around the world, after all.”

Paul rolls his eyes and looks at Ron, the two brothers sharing a knowing smile. “I think the good cowboy is asking for a cook-off, brother,” Paul says. 

“You know what? I think he might just be,” Ron agrees.

Judd looks at the two men, eyes narrowed. “Y’all are coming to _my house_ tonight, where _my wife_ Grace is going to show you how we cook in Texas. Cuz we do it _right_.” 

Both brothers turn and gesture at Judd, in that eerie familial way siblings do. 

“After you, cowboy.”

______

The kitchen looks like a bomb of pasta sauce has gone off, and there are dishes on every surface. Both TK and Owen are sweaty, and their clothes are spattered generously with every kind of oil and sauce known to man. The cooking started that morning early, and it is now almost lunch time. 

TK is running around dumping the cooked stuff in small aluminium containers, while Owen stands surveying the level of disaster. 

“So we need to clean before everyone gets here,” he says, voice deceptively calm. 

TK’s laugh is a little hysterical. “Just a tiny bit, so people don’t think we’re _total_ failures at this.”

Owen moves forward to help his son transfer the last of the food. “I think we make a great team, though.” 

TK laughs again, and starts to move the containers to the backyard. 

“Alright Captain, you finish moving the food to the yard, while I get started on the cleaning.”

Owen salutes TK, and takes the container in his hand. “Okay we have a few hours let’s see what we can make of this.” 

***

The 126 is milling around in the backyard, and TK is playing gracious host with a whole jar of Sangria and little bowls of vegan ice cream. 

“TK! Where’s the Captain? Is he doin okay?” Mateo asks as he picks up a bowl of ice cream.

“Yeah he’s fine, he’s just running a little late,” TK smiles and responds. 

Just then, Michelle and Carlos walk in small boxes of food in hand. Carlos comes up and gives TK a little peck on the lips, making every guest aww in delight. 

“Alright alright you heathens, let the boys have their greetings,” Michelle declares, giving TK a hug as she hands over the box. _Pies._

“Authentic homemade apple pies straight from my mama’s kitchen,” she explains to TK. 

“Thanks Michelle, you didn’t have to, but we appreciate it,” TK says, just as Owen rounds the corner and every voice goes up in greeting. 

“Captain!” 

“Hello everyone, thank you for joining my son and I at home for this meal,” Owen says, “please let’s go grab some food!”

The crowd moves as one, lining up to grab food, with the occasional whoops of delight ringing out as food containers after food containers open up. 

One by one the team takes a seat around the giant table set up, and TK waits in the back for his turn.

“You did all of this by yourself?” Carlos asks, coming to stand with him.

“Dad and I are used to doing everything by ourselves,” TK shrugs and responds. 

“Well next time, call me. I’m here to help too y’know.”

TK smiles at Carlos and kisses him softly. 

“Get a room!” Marjan yells from her place at the table, and Carlos throws a crouton at her. 

The two men finally grab their plates of food and join the group at the table. TK has taken two plates of food, and one of them lands in front of Owen, who smiles and thanks him. 

As they sit, close to Owen, Owen stands with a glass of Sangria in his hands and looks at the group.

The table quiets down.

“Everyone,” Owen starts, “thank you for joining my son and I today. I wanted to bring you all here because I’ve been thinking about how food brings families together.” Owen looks at Marjan and Mateo, Judd and Paul, “how people on this team have gone from teammates to friends, to family.”

He raises his glass at everyone, “and I’m proud to say this is my family now. That TK and I have a home with all of you, and this meal is our way of saying thank you for trusting us to be a part of your family.”

“CHEERS!” Judd yells, and simultaneous cries of _salud!_ and _cheers!_ ring out in the yard. 

Owen looks out at his brand new, bigger family and feels the satisfaction of finally being home.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [Tumblr](https://insidious-intent.tumblr.com/)


End file.
